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 PEKING 233 away. In the treasury there was about $61,000 in gold and silver. The total value of the property carried off and destroyed amounted to several millions. Some valuable books and papers were secured for the British museum. In revenge for the cruelty with which some French and English prisoners had been massa- cred, this palace was burned to the ground. Though Peking (originally Yehking) is regard- ed by the Chinese as one of their most ancient cities, it was not made the capital of the coun- try until the conquest by the Mongols, when Kublai Khan (1279-'94) established his court here, then called Shuntien Foo. He afterward removed it to Hangchow. The native empe- rors of the Ming dynasty, who succeeded the Mongols in 1368, held their court at Nanking, until the third of them transferred the seat of government to Peking about 1410, where it has ever since remained. Under the Mongols the city was called Khan-palik, or city of the khan, and on the Chinese maps it is usually called King-sze, or capital of the court. It was at first surrounded by a single wall pierced by nine gates, whence it is sometimes called the city of nine gates. The N. portion was taken possession of by the Mantchoos in 1644 for barracks and residences. The government purchased the buildings from the Chinese and gave them to their officers ; but necessity soon obliged these men, less frugal and thrifty than the natives, to sell them and content them- selves with humbler abodes; consequently a great part of the Tartar city is now tenanted by Chinese. The Portuguese sent an embassy to Peking in 1517, but the emperor refused to receive it, and the ambassadors were sent to Canton. They were imprisoned there till 1523, when they were put to death. Subsequent Portuguese and Spanish embassies ended less disastrously, but without important results. A Dutch embassy in 1667 reached Peking, and concluded a commercial treaty ; but a second, sent in 1794, was treated with contempt. The Russians have sent several embassies to Pe- king, and from their frontier being in contact with China have compelled the Chinese to treat them as equals. Their first recorded visit was in 1619. In 1689 the boundary line of the two empires was fixed by treaty, and the follow- ing year the ratification was exchanged at Pe- king. Another mission was sent by Peter the Great in 1719. In 1728 another embassy suc- ceeded in establishing intercourse between the two nations ; and a mission was established at Peking, consisting of six ecclesiastical and four lay members, to study the Chinese and Man- tchoo languages. The intercourse of the Eng- lish began later than that of most of the other maritime nations of Europe. In 1792 Lord Macartney was despatched with a large suite, and presents for the emperor. A second em- bassy was sent in 1816, but was summarily dis- missed without an audience, because the am- bassador would not perform the humiliating prostrations designated kotow, or appear before his majesty the day he arrived. The inter- course of foreigners was for many years after this in a very unsatisfactory condition. On June 14, 1858, Count Putiatin, the Russian ambassador, signed a treaty in which the chief points conceded by the Chinese were the right of correspondence upon an equal footing be- tween the Russian minister of foreign affairs and the first minister of state at Peking; per- mission to send diplomatic agents to that city upon special occasions ; liberty of circulation throughout the empire for missionaries under a system of passports ; and the right to trade at ports then open, and in addition at Swa- tow, at a port in Formosa, and at another in Hainan. On the 18th of the same month the American treaty was signed by Mr. Reed, in which the same privileges were accorded to the government of the United States, and a clause was added conferring all privileges that might in future be granted to " the most favored nation." A few days afterward the English and French treaties were signed at Tientsin. In due course the ratified copies of the American and Russian treaties were ex- changed at Peking; but a dispute arising be- tween the ambassadors of other powers and the Chinese with regard to the route by which they should proceed to the capital, they were forced to retire. Early in October, 1860, an English and French force of 25,000 men, after destroying the summer palace and devastating several cities, encamped within the earthwork about a mile outside of the N. wall of Peking. The emperor had escaped to an ancient pal- ace beyond the great wall, and had left his brother, Prince Kung, who was authorized to treat as plenipotentiary with the invaders. The prince showed great reluctance in complying with some of the demands made by Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, but finally yielded to the threat of destroying the city. One of the gates was placed in the hands of the French and another in those of the English; and every- thing was done that appeared likely to humble the minister and mortify the pride of the Chi- nese emperor. On Oct. 24 the ratifications of the treaty of Tientsin were signed. The substance of the treaty was as follows: 1, the emperor of China expressed regret at the mis- understanding occasioned by the affair at the Taku forts ; 2, the right of the queen of Great Britain to keep a resident minister at Peking was acknowledged; 3, 3,100,000 was to be paid by the Chinese government as indemnity ; 4, Tientsin was opened to trade ; 5, the inter- dict upon the emigration of Chinese to the British colonies was removed ; 6, a portion of the mainland opposite Hong Kong, called Kowloon, was ceded to the British; 7, the immediate operation of the treaty and conven- tion was provided for. The French also re- ceived a large indemnity, and Tientsin was to be occupied by the allies till their claims were satisfied. Since March, 1861, Peking has been the residence of all foreign ministers.